Administrative Performance of “No-Fault” Compensation for Medical Injury

No-fault is the leading alternative to traditional liability systems for resolving medically caused injuries, and policy interest in such reform reflects numerous concerns with the traditional tort system as it operates in the medical field through malpractice insurance. The administrative experience of the Florida and Virginia no-fault programs is examined

Juries and Justice: Are Malpractice and Other Personal Injuries Created Equal?

A study analyzed the civil jury system and the difference in personal injury awards between automobile and deep-pocket defendants, especially in medical malpractice cases. Six conclusions were reached, including the finding that juries sometimes respond emotionally and award some objectively similar cases higher damages than others

Force and energy dissipation variations in non-contact atomic force spectroscopy on composite carbon nanotube systems

UHV dynamic force and energy dissipation spectroscopy in non-contact atomic force microscopy were used to probe specific interactions with composite systems formed by encapsulating inorganic compounds inside single-walled carbon nanotubes. It is found that forces due to nano-scale van der Waals interaction can be made to decrease by combining an Ag core and a carbon nanotube shell in the Ag@SWNT system. This specific behaviour was attributed to a significantly different effective dielectric function compared to the individual constituents, evaluated using a simple core-shell optical model. Energy dissipation measurements showed that by filling dissipation increases, explained here by softening of C-C bonds resulting in a more deformable nanotube cage. Thus, filled and unfilled nanotubes can be discriminated based on force and dissipation measurements. These findings have two different implications for potential applications: tuning the effective optical properties and tuning the interaction force for molecular absorption by appropriately choosing the filling with respect to the nanotube.Comment: 22 pages, 6 figure

VFR Flight Into IMC: Reducing the Hazard

Aircraft accidents resulting from initiating or continuing visual flight rules (VFR) flight into instrument meteorological conditions (IMC) continue to be one of the leading causes of fatal aircraft accidents. This paper outlines the nature and scope of this hazard and reviews past and present initiatives designed to reduce it. It also suggests future interventions that may be effective in reducing the threat of this aviation hazard

Interventions for the treatment of oral and oropharyngeal cancers: surgical treatment.

BACKGROUND: Surgery is an important part of the management of oral cavity cancer with regard to both the removal of the primary tumour and removal of lymph nodes in the neck. Surgery is less frequently used in oropharyngeal cancer. Surgery alone may be treatment for early stage disease or surgery may be used in combination with radiotherapy, chemotherapy and immunotherapy/biotherapy. There is variation in the recommended timing and extent of surgery in the overall treatment regimens of people with these cancers. OBJECTIVES: To determine which surgical treatment modalities for oral cavity and oropharyngeal cancers result in increased overall survival, disease free survival, progression free survival and reduced recurrence. SEARCH STRATEGY: The following electronic databases were searched: the Cochrane Oral Health Group Trials Register (to 17 February 2011), the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL) (The Cochrane Library 2011, Issue 1), MEDLINE via OVID (1950 to 17 February 2011) and EMBASE via OVID (1980 to 17 February 2011). There were no restrictions regarding language or date of publication. SELECTION CRITERIA: Randomised controlled trials where more than 50% of participants had primary tumours of the oral cavity or oropharynx, and which compared two or more surgical treatment modalities or surgery versus other treatment modalities. DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS: Data extraction and assessment of risk of bias was undertaken independently by two or more review authors. Study authors were contacted for additional information as required. Adverse events data were collected from published trials. MAIN RESULTS: Seven trials (n = 669; 667 with cancers of the oral cavity) satisfied the inclusion criteria, but none were assessed as low risk of bias. Trials were grouped into three main comparisons. Four trials compared elective neck dissection (ND) with therapeutic neck dissection in patients with oral cavity cancer and clinically negative neck nodes, but differences in type of surgery and duration of follow-up made meta-analysis inappropriate. Three of these trials reported overall and disease free survival. One trial showed a benefit for elective supraomohyoid neck dissection compared to therapeutic ND in overall and disease free survival. Two trials found no difference between elective radical ND and therapeutic ND for the outcomes of overall survival and disease free survival. All four trials found reduced locoregional recurrence following elective ND.A further two trials compared elective radical ND with elective selective ND and found no difference in overall survival, disease free survival or recurrence. The final trial compared surgery plus radiotherapy to radiotherapy alone but data were unreliable because the trial stopped early and there were multiple protocol violations.None of the trials reported quality of life as an outcome. Two trials, evaluating different comparisons reported adverse effects of treatment. AUTHORS' CONCLUSIONS: Seven included trials evaluated neck dissection surgery in patients with oral cavity cancers. The review found weak evidence that elective neck dissection of clinically negative neck nodes at the time of removal of the primary tumour results in reduced locoregional recurrence, but there is insufficient evidence to conclude that elective neck dissection increases overall survival or disease free survival compared to therapeutic neck dissection. There is very weak evidence from one trial that elective supraomohyoid neck dissection may be associated with increased overall and disease free survival. There is no evidence that radical neck dissection increases overall survival compared to conservative neck dissection surgery. Reporting of adverse events in all trials was poor and it was not possible to compare the quality of life of patients undergoing different surgeries

Spectroscopy of Hadrons with b Quarks from Lattice NRQCD

Preliminary results from an extensive lattice calculation of the B, B_c, and \Upsilon spectrum at quenched \beta = 6.0 are presented. The study includes radially and orbitally excited mesons, and baryons containing b quarks. The b quarks are formulated using NRQCD; for light and c quarks, a tadpole-improved clover action is used.Comment: talk given at LATTICE98(heavyqk), 3 pages LaTeX, 2 Postscript figure

B Meson Decay Constants From NRQCD

We present quenched results for B meson decay constants using NRQCD b quarks and O(a) tadpole improved clover light quarks. For the first time, one-loop matching factors between lattice and continuum currents are incorporated through O(\alpha/M) taking operator mixing fully into account. This includes an important O(\alpha a) discretization correction to the heavy-light axial vector current. We find f_B = 0.147(11)(^{+8}_{-12})(9)(6) MeV and f_{B_s}/f_B = 1.20(4)(^{+4}_{-0}). PACS numbers: 12.38.Gc, 12.39.Hg, 13.20.He, 14.40.NdComment: LaTeX file, 14 pages, typos corrected, to be published in Phys. Lett.

Carbon-rich dust production in metal-poor galaxies in the Local Group

We have observed a sample of 19 carbon stars in the Sculptor, Carina, Fornax, and Leo I dwarf spheroidal galaxies with the Infrared Spectrograph on the Spitzer Space Telescope. The spectra show significant quantities of dust around the carbon stars in Sculptor, Fornax, and Leo I, but little in Carina. Previous comparisons of carbon stars with similar pulsation properties in the Galaxy and the Magellanic Clouds revealed no evidence that metallicity affected the production of dust by carbon stars. However, the more metal-poor stars in the current sample appear to be generating less dust. These data extend two known trends to lower metallicities. In more metal-poor samples, the SiC dust emission weakens, while the acetylene absorption strengthens. The bolometric magnitudes and infrared spectral properties of the carbon stars in Fornax are consistent with metallicities more similar to carbon stars in the Magellanic Clouds than in the other dwarf spheroidals in our sample. A study of the carbon budget in these stars reinforces previous considerations that the dredge-up of sufficient quantities of carbon from the stellar cores may trigger the final superwind phase, ending a star's lifetime on the asymptotic giant branch.Comment: ApJ, in press, 21 pages, 12 figures. Replaced Fig 12, corrected two reference